On Wednesday, the Minnesota Senate passed a significant Agriculture, Broadband, and Housing bill to help Minnesota producers and families. The legislation works to expand broadband funding, addresses urgent concerns in our agriculture sector and improves access to affordable housing.
“This bill is a huge win for Northwest Minnesota,” Senator Mark Johnson (R-East Grand Forks) said.“Investing in reliable internet, critically needed workforce housing, and our agriculture economy is vitally important. Our legislation responds to urgent needs facing Greater Minnesota while providing solutions to long-term terms challenges.”
Supporting Minnesota Agriculture
Senate Republicans have consistently advocated for resources to help our producers and everyone who is a part of Minnesota agriculture. Republicans continue their commitment in this year’s Agriculture package.
The legislation works to help our producers combat the ongoing Avian influenza outbreak by appropriating $500,000 to the agricultural emergency account to be used for avian influenza testing supplies. Additionally, included is $350,000 for the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at the University of Minnesota for equipment to test for chronic wasting disease (CWD), African swine fever, avian influenza, and other animal diseases.
The package includes Senator Johnson’s provision to help reimburse and offset lost revenue for Minnesota deer farmers who were impacted by the banning of deer movement by the Department of Natural Resources. The movement ban has had a devastating impact on Minnesota deer farmers.
Additionally, Senator Johnson’s provision for $500,000 for continuing construction of the soybean processing and research facility at the Ag Innovation Campus in Crookston is included.
Finally, the Agriculture section of the bill builds on past programs successfully championed by Senate Republicans to support livestock processing. This includes investments in meat cutting and butchery training programs; money to start, modernize or expand meat, poultry, dairy, and egg processing facilities; and grants for training high school students and employees of small processors.
Investing in Connecting Minnesotans with Broadband
The Senate bill invests heavily in improving Minnesota broadband connectivity. The legislation directs a historic level of up to $210 million of federal money to improve Minnesota broadband which is on top of the $70 million the legislature passed last session. The bill works to ensure Minnesota is not left behind in receiving federal broadband dollars.
Investments in the Border-to-Border broadband grant program have become increasingly important to connect all Minnesotans to the modern economy. Roughly 240,000 Minnesota households are without reliable internet access including 25% of rural Minnesota households.
“Making historic investments inbroadband development will give greater economic opportunities for Northwest Minnesotans,” Johnson said.“Without these investments, rural Minnesota will be left behind.”
Promoting Pathways to Home Ownership
The bill includes a comprehensive housing plan to ensure Minnesotans have stable housing and promotes and encourages pathways to homeownership.
The Senate legislation includes funding for the Homeownership Investment Grants Program that provides funding to Minnesota-based Community Development Financial Institutions to increase affordable homeownership in our state. Republicans also make new investments for the Workforce Homeownership Program, which is designed to increase the supply of workforce and affordable, owner-occupied housing.
The bill prevents the governor from issuing any executive order that prohibits or delays evictions for more than 30 days unless an extension to the order is approved by a majority vote of each house of the legislature.
The legislation combats misguided rent control policies by prohibiting local governments from enacting rent control on private residential properties, retroactive to November 1, 2021, and it requires the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency to complete a report on the impacts of rent control on affordable housing. In the meantime, the legislation restricts MHFA from using any funds on multifamily housing projects in cities that have adopted a rent control ordinance.
The bill now awaits action by the House of Representatives.